Each of these passages tell us something about the Book of Life.
Exodus 32:30-33 KJV
30) And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses said unto the people, Ye have sinned a great sin: and now I will go up unto the LORD; peradventure I shall make an atonement for your sin.
31) And Moses returned unto the LORD, and said, Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold.
32) Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written.
33) And the LORD said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book.
God has a book, and from that book He blots out those who sin against Him.
Psalms 69:27-28 KJV
27) Add iniquity unto their iniquity: and let them not come into thy righteousness.
28) Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous.
The iniquitous are blotted from the book, while the righteous remain.
Daniel 12:1 KJV
1) And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.
The book is the record of whom God is saving.
Philippians 4:3 KJV
3) And I intreat thee also, true yokefellow, help those women which laboured with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and with other my fellowlabourers, whose names are in the book of life.
Again, a record of God's servants.
Revelation 3:4-6 KJV
4) Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy.
5) He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.
6) He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
The overcomer is promised to not be blotted from the book of life.
Revelation 13:7-9 KJV
7) And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.
8) And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
9) If any man have an ear, let him hear.
Not being written in the book of life is indicative of a disposition to worship the beast.
Something interesting in this passage, "not written", written here is Perfect Tense, meaning that the writing that was done remains done. A literal reading here is,
"Whose names do not remain written in the book of life"
Something else to note, there are two ways you can read this passage, both equally valid translations. The clause, "from the foundation of the world" can be associated with "remains written" or "the Lamb slain". So it's equally valid to understand this as saying that "the names remain written in the book from the foundation of the world", or to say, "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world". Greek rules for word order are very different from ours, and use spelling where we use position. So words that seem out of position to us are clarified to the Greek reader by the differences in spelling. I can explain this more if anyone wants that.
The take-away here is that this passage therefore has an ambiguous part, we can read it either way, so we need another unambiguous passage, something that can only be read one way, to know which way we should understand this passage. Which brings us to,
Revelation 17:8 KJV
8) The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
In this case, it's the same construction, "whose names do not remain written (Perfect tense again) in the book of life from the foundation of the world. We can know then that names are written in the book of life at the foundation of the world, and some do not remain.
Revelation 20:11-15 KJV
11) And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
12) And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
13) And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.
14) And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
15) And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
Lastly, the book of life records all who will not be cast into the lake of fire.
These are all the passages I can think of related to the Book of Life, are there any others?
My understanding from these passages is that when God made the world, He wrote a book with the names of all who would live. God removes the names from the book of those who sin against Him.
I believe this is based on "imputed sin", the judical reckoning of sin.
In Exodus, God said that He would blot from His book those who sin against him. Someone recently asked me, what about the sins they committed before that time? Wouldn't they already be blotted out?
Romans 5:12-14 KJV
12) Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
13) (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
14) Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.
Until God gave Moses the Law, sin was not imputed to them, and therefore, their names were not blotted out. They had not broken a commandment, because no commandments had been given. Even so, even though their sin was not charged against them, they still died, because sin kills.
And how is it that names remain, even though we've all sinned, and fallen short of God's glory?
Romans 4:6-8 KJV
6) Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works,
7) Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.
8) Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.
Much love!
Exodus 32:30-33 KJV
30) And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses said unto the people, Ye have sinned a great sin: and now I will go up unto the LORD; peradventure I shall make an atonement for your sin.
31) And Moses returned unto the LORD, and said, Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold.
32) Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written.
33) And the LORD said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book.
God has a book, and from that book He blots out those who sin against Him.
Psalms 69:27-28 KJV
27) Add iniquity unto their iniquity: and let them not come into thy righteousness.
28) Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous.
The iniquitous are blotted from the book, while the righteous remain.
Daniel 12:1 KJV
1) And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.
The book is the record of whom God is saving.
Philippians 4:3 KJV
3) And I intreat thee also, true yokefellow, help those women which laboured with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and with other my fellowlabourers, whose names are in the book of life.
Again, a record of God's servants.
Revelation 3:4-6 KJV
4) Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy.
5) He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.
6) He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
The overcomer is promised to not be blotted from the book of life.
Revelation 13:7-9 KJV
7) And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.
8) And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
9) If any man have an ear, let him hear.
Not being written in the book of life is indicative of a disposition to worship the beast.
Something interesting in this passage, "not written", written here is Perfect Tense, meaning that the writing that was done remains done. A literal reading here is,
"Whose names do not remain written in the book of life"
Something else to note, there are two ways you can read this passage, both equally valid translations. The clause, "from the foundation of the world" can be associated with "remains written" or "the Lamb slain". So it's equally valid to understand this as saying that "the names remain written in the book from the foundation of the world", or to say, "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world". Greek rules for word order are very different from ours, and use spelling where we use position. So words that seem out of position to us are clarified to the Greek reader by the differences in spelling. I can explain this more if anyone wants that.
The take-away here is that this passage therefore has an ambiguous part, we can read it either way, so we need another unambiguous passage, something that can only be read one way, to know which way we should understand this passage. Which brings us to,
Revelation 17:8 KJV
8) The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
In this case, it's the same construction, "whose names do not remain written (Perfect tense again) in the book of life from the foundation of the world. We can know then that names are written in the book of life at the foundation of the world, and some do not remain.
Revelation 20:11-15 KJV
11) And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
12) And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
13) And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.
14) And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
15) And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
Lastly, the book of life records all who will not be cast into the lake of fire.
These are all the passages I can think of related to the Book of Life, are there any others?
My understanding from these passages is that when God made the world, He wrote a book with the names of all who would live. God removes the names from the book of those who sin against Him.
I believe this is based on "imputed sin", the judical reckoning of sin.
In Exodus, God said that He would blot from His book those who sin against him. Someone recently asked me, what about the sins they committed before that time? Wouldn't they already be blotted out?
Romans 5:12-14 KJV
12) Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
13) (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
14) Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.
Until God gave Moses the Law, sin was not imputed to them, and therefore, their names were not blotted out. They had not broken a commandment, because no commandments had been given. Even so, even though their sin was not charged against them, they still died, because sin kills.
And how is it that names remain, even though we've all sinned, and fallen short of God's glory?
Romans 4:6-8 KJV
6) Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works,
7) Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.
8) Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.
Much love!
